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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Well. uh....., June 27, 2000
This review is from: The Devil's Brood (Paperback)
Jeff Rovin's RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN was unputdownable fun. Sadly this pulpy sequel from David Jacobs is not. First bad sign: I was unable to prevent myself from skimming over numbers of pages at no loss to the two storylines (barely connected, by the way, and unfinished in this volume to boot). The main test of this type of licensed fiction is whether you can believe the characters from the other medium are here, living this adventure. I could not see Bela Lugosi, John Carradine or even Lon Chaney Jr in the corny, supercharged, mass-murdering Dracula depicted here; and Mr Jacobs' method of reviving the Count reaches ludicrous new heights of incredibility even for this genre, temporarily turning the Count into a cross between Mothra and the Blob. To be fair, Universal itself had given up contriving methods of resurrection (original or otherwise) by the time it reached the last episodes in the film series, so marks to Mr Jacobs for the attempt. The human characters that dominate most of the book are an uninvolving bunch, while the Frankenstein monster is dead most of the time, but then that, too, is faithful to Universal's monster rallies. Problems also arise when the author apparently tries to emulate Rovin's in-jokes. A character played by actor Warner Oland in WEREWOLF OF LONDON is described from a photograph as looking "like a Swede masquerading as an Asian". Oland, a Charlie Chan of the movies, was exactly that, but in story context why would a portly, middle-aged man in a photograph particularly resemble a Swede? What exactly does a `Swede' look like? Oland was hardly a Nordic blonde. It's a minor gripe in itself, but as the book never endears itself, I had no inclination to overlook it; it was just annoying. The cover art is crude and stars what appears to be the Mummy. He's not here, and neither is the Gill-Man, just for the record.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dreadful rubbish, July 10, 2000
This review is from: The Devil's Brood (Paperback)
I'll be honest, I only got 106 pages into this book before giving up on it. The previous work in the series, RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN by Jeff Rovin, was a delight from start to finish. But this book features paper-thin characters and an emphasis on gore that is untrue to the spirit of the original Universal Monsters series, and betrays a singular lack of taste on the part of the author. The author writes in short paragraphs, I guess in an effort to replicate the writing of the "shudder pulps" of the 1940s. But it all becomes an arbitrary exercise in stylistic excess, with zombies flopping about with severed spinal cords sticking out. There's a rule against spoilers, or I'd tell you the author's absurd transformation of Dracula into a--well, Steve McQueen would have used CO2 on it, I'll give you that much of a clue. I'm not the only guy who gave up on this book; two other Universal Horror movie buffs I know gave up in frustration and fury after a few chapters. Save your money.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A VERY weak sequel to RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN, July 6, 2000
This review is from: The Devil's Brood (Paperback)
To me, Jeff Rovin's RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN was akin to reading an actual movie script follow-up to ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.. i could actally see Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, etc. brought back to life within the context of Rovin's writing... THE DEVIL'S BROOD on the other hand, falls completely flat. Dracula & Frankenstein spend over 80 % of the text either dormant or in another life form. The two seperate plots have no real connecting point, with the whole Bride of Frankenstein angle left totally unresolved. David Jacobs writing is just fine by "pulp" standards, but anyone reading this hoping for the same Universal Monsters classic "treatment" that RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN presented, is bound to be very disappointed.
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